Building on last Saturday's larger than expected anti austerity protests in Glasgow, London and other cities, the TUC is calling a national demonstration in Manchester on Sunday 4 October to coincide with the Tory Party conference. Over 50,000 attended a similar demonstration in 2013.
TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: “This October’s march and rally will allow thousands of ordinary people to show the government exactly what they think of their policies. The Conservatives’ planned attack on trade unions and extreme cuts are an assault on working people at a time when they should be focused on securing the UK’s fragile recovery and creating better jobs to boost productivity.”
https://www.tuc.org.uk/about-tuc/regions/tuc-organise-national-demonstration-during-conservative-party-conference
As the clock ticked down on a bail out deal between the Greek Government and the Troika – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF – UNISON conference was debating emergency composite motion 2 on ‘UNISON’s political campaign after the General Election.’
However this omnibus composite (agreed between the NEC and 5 branches) was silent on Britain’s relationship with the EU - an issue which is central to the political agenda of the Tory Government and attracting growing concern in some parts of the British trade union movement (see below).
#uNDC15 A thumping speech from Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, hit all the right buttons with Conference with support for the Glasgow strikers and a pledge that 'an injury to one is an injury to all' as he backed sacked SECC worker Robert O'Donnell.
It celebrated victories, listed the challenges ahead and underlined that trade union rights are human rights and must be protected.
His full speech is below:
#uLGC15 'I have tried not to focus on the doom and gloom, but to give you a flavour of the struggles that take place every day around the UK, struggles and resistance by you and our members that we need to build on. We have to get even better organised; we have to devise and work within the new structures of devolution and combined authorities, working across the usual boundaries of service groups' said Glen Williams, Chair of the Service Group Executive in moving the 2014/15 Local Government Annual Report.
Full speech below:
#UNDC15 Well this week we all do. The National Delegate Conference hits the real* capital of Scotland (sorry Embra) where delegates can sample the best curries, the best pubs and the best hospitality that Scotland has to offer. Who needs sunny weather when you can drink all day, dance all night and play at finding the cormorants on the Clyde? And two of Scotland’s finest football teams play here, Celtic and Partick Thistle, while there are also representatives of the lower divisions on the South of the river.
Then there’s what happens in the Conference hall. The SECC itself has become controversial as a result of the policies pursued by its management, so has only itself to blame. And if UNISON were booking its conference now, perhaps we could take those policies into account. But it is worth remembering that the lead time between booking a conference venue and actually using it is about five years.
'The most recent statistics from Acas (April-December 2014) show that nearly 59,000 workers have used early conciliation, compared to just under 2,000 employers and that the number of applications has risen from around 1,000 a week when conciliation was not mandatory to 1,800 a week in recent months' writes Sonia McKay in Labour Research. The new process has secured COT3 settlements in only one in eight cases with another 60% of claims being abandoned before reaching Tribunal.
http://www.lrdpublications.org.uk/publications.php?pub=LR&iss=1774&id=idm19652088&fromopp=y
A much neglected aspect of the 'European debate' is the extent to which the EU is a driving force for the liberalisation and privatisation of public services. Judith Clifton writing for the LSE's British politics and policy blog, examines how local and national governments have lost power over key areas of public service governance to Brussels. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions has complained that the European Commission 'proclaims to be neutral but in practice veers towards applying internal market rules to public services in an overly-market focused way, eroding local democracy'
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/beyond-hollowing-out-straitjacketing-the-state/
Tory proposals in the Trade Union Bill to impose new industrial action ballot thresholds for turnout (50%) and support (in 'essential services' 40% of all balloted) 'would make almost all strikes illegal, particularly in large and dispersed workforces where postal ballots rarely achieve this' writes Michael Meacher MP.
http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/06/tory-trade-union-bill-is-an-attack-on-a-fundamental-human-right/
The proposals if implemented (without a return to workplace balloting) will severely undermine national bargaining with union's unable to exert leverage in future negotiations on pay, pensions etc.
The Trade Union Bill is a political attack on trade union rights as vicious as any law enacted during the Thatcher era. A major campaign inside and outside of Parliament is required to resist this draconian legislation.
